Thirteen
Scarlett
“You look beautiful,” Ryder said as I came out of the dressing room. His room was really a suite of rooms that had two bathrooms, two dressing rooms, a bedroom and a sitting room. There was even a study. I’d not seen him since I’d told him I was going to get ready.
“Thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself.” I reached up and tugged at his bowtie and then released it, reminding myself we weren’t a real couple.
“That blue looks fantastic with your hair,” he said, his gaze skirting over my body.
I nudged him. “Save your compliments for when we’re in public.”
“I meant it, but okay. Are you ready?”
I guess charm like his was difficult to turn off. “Sure. As ready as I’ll ever be.”
He took my hand as we walked along the corridor toward the staircase. “How far away is the dining room?” I whispered. “These shoes aren’t meant for walking.”
Ryder chuckled. “Piggyback?” he asked.
I grinned. “Be careful, I might say yes.”
Ryder patiently held my hand as I descended the stairs in my overly high strappy heels. When we were just a few steps from the bottom, the door opened and a petite girl in rain boots came through the door. “It’s vile out there,” she said to Lane, who took her coat.
“Darce,” Ryder called.
His sister looked up and almost leapt toward us, hopping out of her boots and bounding toward us in a cocktail dress and stocking feet. “It’s so good to see you.” She took her brother’s face in her hands and rubbed as if she was petting a dog.
“Get off,” he said, knocking Darcy’s hands out of the way. “Let me introduce you to Scarlett,” Ryder said, not letting go of my hand. “Scarlett, this is my pain-in-my-backside sister.”
It was a little awkward as we were on the stairs but she kissed me on one cheek and then the other, all the while beaming at me.
“It’s beyond brilliant to have you here, Scarlett. Ryder’s told me so much about you. Can you believe Frederick and Victoria insisted on coming over this evening? Apologies in advance for the grilling you’re going to get.” She waved her hand in the air as she padded down the stairs. “Well, we’ll make sure you’re okay. Just don’t get left alone with Victoria. She might stab you with a fork or something.” She laughed and continued to chatter as we got to the bottom of the stairs and headed right in the same direction Ryder’s grandfather had taken earlier, down a dim corridor lined with oil paintings that I barely got a look at as we strode through.
“Darcy, where are your shoes?” Ryder’s grandfather asked as we entered an oak-paneled dining room with a stone fireplace at one end and a long table in the center. The lighting was low and what glow there was seemed to be sucked into the dark floors and walls.
“I went to check on the horses and lost them. So you’ll have to deal with my stockinged feet.” She went up on tiptoes as if to emphasize her lack of footwear.
I turned at the sound of someone clearing their throat and found a couple standing close together on the other side of the door.
“Scarlett,” Ryder said. “Let me introduce you to my cousin Frederick, and his wife, Victoria.”
“How do you do?” I asked, using the formal greeting Ryder had suggested.
“How do you do?” Frederick shook my hand, then Victoria coldly kissed the air by my cheek with a tight smile. There was none of the easy familiarity that Darcy had displayed.
But then, I was probably the last person either Victoria or her husband wanted to see.
A bell tinkled and everyone started moving toward the table.
“Sit next to me, Scarlett,” Darcy said, patting the chair beside her. I glanced up at Ryder, who nodded.
The table was covered in a starched, white tablecloth and there was enough silverware surrounding my plate I was pretty sure if I stuffed it all in my suitcase, I could pay off Cecily Fragrance’s loans and be done with this charade.
Ryder sat the other side of me, and to the right of his grandfather, who sat at the top of the table. Frederick and Victoria sat opposite us. There was an additional, empty place setting, but before I could wonder who it was for, the dining room door opened.
“So sorry I’m late.”
This must be Aurora—Ryder’s other option for a wife.
I smiled in her direction as she took a seat but her eyes were firmly on Ryder.
“So, Scarlett, tell me how you and Ryder met,” Victoria said. “It sounds like it’s been a whirlwind romance.”
Ryder draped his arm around the back of my chair and leaned into me. “Not for me. Scarlett doesn’t remember, but we met at a party a couple of years ago. Her laugh caught my attention from across the room. And then I saw her.” He gazed at me in a performance worthy of an Oscar. “Of course I asked her out then, but alas she turned me down flat.”
Darcy giggled, though I wasn’t sure if it was as a result of our lie or the thought of her brother being turned down by a woman that amused her.
“It appears you won her over eventually,” Frederick said.
“We met at work,” I blurted, wanting to add something to the conversation so I didn’t appear mute, but apparently my brain and my mouth weren’t communicating well.
“You work for Ryder?” she asked, scowling as a bowl of soup was put in front of her by Lane, who was serving along with a younger girl I’d not seen before.
“I wish,” Ryder said. “Scarlett is a talented entrepreneur—I wanted to buy her business.”
“Oh?” Frederick said. “What business is that?”
“It’s a fragrance company based in New York. I set it up with a friend of mine,” I said.
“A fragrance company? That doesn’t sound like the type of investment you normally make, dear cousin,” Frederick said to Ryder, glancing down at his soup.
“I like to invest in businesses that make money. Cecily Fragrance has great margins and a strong future ahead of it.” I glanced sideways at him and smiled, hoping that wasn’t part of the lie we were spinning. The Westbury Group had been very successful and the fact that the company made a real effort to buy us out was flattering.
“Are you investing?” Darcy asked.
“Well, I’m not buying them out but the Westbury Group might provide them with some financing. Scarlett turned me down again.”
His grandfather chuckled. “Good decision, my dear.”
“I wish I were joking, Grandfather, but Scarlett didn’t like my offer at all.”
“Well, it seems you found an offer she liked well enough,” Victoria said under her breath, her attention returning to her soup.
“I managed to convince her to join me for a drink,” Ryder said.
“I’m surprised your ego let you ask her out again,” Darcy said.